Coastal defence using wave farms: The role of farm-to-coast distance

Abstract

a b s t r a c tThe location of a wave farm and, in particular, its distance to the coast is one of the key aspects in a wave energy project. The effects of the farm on the coast, which can be instrumental in mitigating storminduced erosion and thus contribute to coastal defence, are sometimes disregarded in selecting its location, possibly due to the inexistence of an ad hoc methodology. In this context, the objective of this work is to examine the influence of the farm-to-coast distance through a sensitivity analysis in a case study: Perranporth (UK). The impacts of a wave farm on the beach morphology are examined in four scenarios with different farm-to-coast distances using a high-resolution suite of numerical models. The results show that a wave farm closest to the beach offers the highest degree of coastal protection (up to 20% of beach erosion reduction). The downside of this enhanced coastal protection is that the wave resource available at this location would be slightly smaller (approx. 10%) than in the case of the wave farms further from the coast. More generally, we find that the farm-to-coast distance is a critical variable in determining the effectiveness of a wave farm for coastal defence.

Towards an optimum design of wave energy converter arrays through an integrated approach of life cycle performance and operational capacity

“…in terms of economical exploitation (Iglesias and Carballo, 2014;Abanades et al, 2015), and it minimizes the environmental impact of the facility.…”

Experimental Measurement of Wave Field Variations around Wave Energy Converter Arrays

“…It should be noted that not all impacts are undesirable. There is a growing interest in the use of WEC farms for purposes of coastal protection [9][10][11]. Observation of the variation in wave climate is the first step in determining the effects of WEC farms on the other environmental aspects of sediment transport, organism transport, pollution dispersal, and biogeochemical processes.…”

Laboratory Tests in the Development of WaveCat

“…Secondly, the impact on the local marine environment must be assessed in terms of the effect on the coastline [16][17][18] and the immediate marine ecosystem [19], amongst others. The above impacts are not necessarily negative, as a wave farm extracting energy from an incoming wave field can protect vulnerable coastlines [20][21][22] or other renewable energy installations [23,24]. Thirdly, a WEC must be chosen to suit the conditions in which energy extraction is occurring, both to minimise negative impacts and to efficiently capture energy in a commercially [28]).…”